Brighsun New Energy Bus With 1,000 km (600 miles) Range?

Brighsun New Energy, one of the many Chinese companies engaged in the manufacturing of electric buses, stated an unbelievable record of 1,004 km (623 miles) covered on a single charge by a prototype Brighsun Avass Touring Coach from Melbourne to Sydney in Australia.

If that’s true (we are struggling to find more data), that would be twice the range of any other EV bus record (even considering potential low-speed driving).

Brighsun New Energy’s could be using some range-extending tricks in the prototype that would not be found in real-world use (or production buses), so we are cautious about the 1,000 km range bus, as well as 1-hour fast charge.

On the other hand, One Step Off The Grid said that the 1,004 km range is officially certified:

“The launch, held at Yuroke, one hour north of Melbourne’s CBD, by Australia-based company Brighsun, showcased a total of four prototype full electric buses ranging from high range capacity route service passenger buses to touring coaches.

Federal environment minister Greg Hunt attended the launch, and confirmed that the bus was officially certified, to international standards, to drive a huge 1004km on one charge.”

“The buses run on a high performance lithium-ion battery combined with proprietary eMotor, battery management and a regenerative braking system.

Brighsun CEO Allen Saylav, also a director of the Society of Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia (SAE), said the technology behind the bus – in development for four years – had evolved from a desire to deliver clean, sustainable public transport options.”

I don’t think you should be surprises. Tesla already can go at a speed of 72 km/h for more than 700 km. I think that 72 is not fast but it is doable. The 90kWh battery will make it go even farther . It was also clear from Elon in Denmark that by 2017 if not 2016 the 1000 km will be available. So a big bus like this can easily do it.

A big battery is also weight which reduces payload and range. The statement was with a big enough battery it can work, it might work but not well. RANGE is the merit, you get that with light weight, streamlined design and other factors, not just the size of the battery.

It will be hard to justify a diesel bus when this becomes readily available. I always thought affordable longer range batteries would drive the ICE automobile out of favor first. Looks like it could first happen with fleet buses instead.

Those big buses can be surprisingly efficient. A couple of years ago I asked a bus driver what kind of mileage he was getting out of his full-size, 60-seat bus. I was expecting around 60-70 L/100km, but he said he usually got around 25 L/100km. That is barely more than double of what an average SUV with a gas engine gets.

How are you going to charge 500 kWh in one hour? The article can say what they want, that does not make it true. The title states 600 miles.
Transit buses need to payback the cost of the bus, the more hours in service, the quicker the payback.
Charge time costs, there is no way around it.

“Transit buses need to payback the cost of the bus, the more hours in service, the quicker the payback.”
My point is that is a strawman. Long haul buses have to load and unload passengers as well as cargo and have longer stops (15-30 minutes).

Just using a SF to LA route (385 miles) and picking the quickest schedule (7.5 hours), there is a 15 minute layover in Oakland and a 30 minute one in Avenal. Bus boarding time is 15-30 minutes, so there’s at least a whole hour to charge 400 miles of range. If it’s used on the slower schedules there would be even more layover time.

Aerodynamic drag is the major determinant of energy use at any more than 30kph or so. The crucial factor for a bus-shaped vehicle in terms of aerodynamic drag is the frontal area. Weight is nigh-on irrelevant to drag for non stop/go driving. Even in that context, an EV has a huge advantage over an ICEV due to it being able to recoup energy during deceleration (braking) rather than wasting it to heat using traditional friction brakes.

1000km is a perfectly believable range – assuming the battery is big enough. A bus would be ideal for such an arrangement… But at what cost? MW

The Hybricon bus in Sweden charges at 650kW, so the charger isn’t an issue.plus a 500kW battery charging at 1C is charged in 1hour at 500kW. Energy use of 0.7 kW/km is also possible in a bus. Bet they didn’t use the A/C though!

I think range of all electric vehicles will not be an issue very soon.

Sunvault Energy will showcase a new graphene EESD in a electric supercar in 2016 hopefully. The Edison Electron 1 will maybe have a 500 Km range with a five minute 95% charge while driving with an onboard graphene hydrogen on demand fuel cell and then maybe another 460 Km and another 5 minute charge and on and on.

Sunvault’s EESD is 100% green, May have a very long life time, is very light and no known safety issues.

The range is not the issue, it’s the 5 minute charge to 90 to 95% while driving that is the game changer.

I want a Tesla with Sunvault’s EESD with a Power wall using S.V’s technology .

This EESD will make solar & wind efficient and it will make electric vehicles of all sizes come to life, with out the range anxiety, high maintenance, cold weather starting issues and major savings in fuel costs.